Philippians - Heaven Is the Goal

Many books have been written about the secrets behind the success of great people. I have some of these books in my library. And I've heard people lecture on why great men were truly great. The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3 one of the secrets of his life, and that was to have the right motives. In Philippians 3, Paul emphasizes the fact that if we're going to have joy in our ministry, our motives must be right. And he points out three very important motives.

Philippians 3:1-11, his righteousness, to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:12-16, his reward, to live to please him alone. And then Philippians 3:17-21, his return, to have the second coming of Jesus Christ as the motivation for ministry and service.

Let's read now Philippians 3:12-16, and discover what Paul has to say about spiritual athletics. Not as though I had already attained or obtained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. I want to get my hands on all that he got his hands on me to give to me. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, mature, be thus minded. And if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, as to that which we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Now in this paragraph, we have Paul picturing himself as an athlete. If you're going to be a winning athlete, there are certain essentials that you must possess. And Paul illustrates them here in this paragraph in Philippians 3.

Number one, dissatisfaction. Not as though I had already attained. Philippians 3:12. Philippians 3:13. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. I have not yet arrived. Any athlete who is going to be a winner has to be dissatisfied with his performance. He cannot rest on his medals or his trophies or his awards. You see, you and I are not competing with others in the Christian race, we are competing with ourselves.

In fact, I happen to be watching television one time when they were interviewing an Olympic winner. This fellow had won a medal in the swimming competition. And the interviewer said to the young man, "I suppose you were concerned about the people around you and how fast they were going?" And he said, "No, when I train, I compete with myself." I like that.

You should be competing with yourself. You should strive to be a better teacher, a better preacher, a better soul winner. You should always be dissatisfied with the record that you've got. Now, we're not dissatisfied with Christ. Don't misunderstand me. We're not dissatisfied with the Christian life, but we should never get totally complacent and satisfied with our evaluation of our own achievement.

The second is devotion. This one thing I do. You know, one thing is a good summary of the Christian life. Jesus said to the rich young ruler, "One thing thou lackest." He said to Martha, "One thing is needful." The Psalmist said, "One thing do I seek after." Paul said, "This one thing I do." This is the single-mindedness that always leads to success. Devotion.

The single mind of Philippians 1, where he says, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." You know, this unifies your life and it simplifies your life. Every decision that an athlete makes, he makes with reference to winning the game, winning the race, achieving his goal.

Every two or three years, I have to look at my own life and say, "Now, how much extra baggage am I carrying as I run this race?" How many directions am I running into? Devotion. This one thing I do, which leads us now to the third essential.

We've talked about dissatisfaction and devotion. Let's talk about direction. Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.

Now, we should not be controlled by the past. When Paul says, "Forgetting those things which are behind," he's not talking about wiping them out of your mind. In fact, when Paul wrote his letters, he talked about things from the past. He told Timothy how that Paul, in his past life, how he had been a abusive person, how he had caused others to recant their faith in Jesus Christ. He was injurious and he was, he was zealous for that which was wrong.

Paul does not say we should wipe out of our minds those things that we experienced in the past. In the Bible, to forget means not to allow to control. When you forget the past, it means the past does not control you. When God says to us, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more," that doesn't mean that God wipes them out of his mind. God cannot forget. God knows all things. What's it mean? I'm not going to hold it against you. The past is no longer going to have any control over you.

We are looking for what God has ahead of us. He's marked out a course for every one of us. Every one of us has been given a course to run in, a goal to reach. Now, I can't be looking at you. I can't be looking around at the other runners. I can't be looking back and see who's behind me. I've got to keep my eyes focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, the prize of his high calling. Direction. That's an essential if there's going to be victory in the Christian life.

Now there's a fourth one. Dissatisfaction, devotion, direction, determination. Philippians 3:14. I press.

Now, there are two extremes you have to watch out for. One of them says, "Just die and let God do it all." You know, "Let go and let God do it all." God's not going to run the race for you. He's not going to do it in spite of you and he's not going to do it instead of you. He's going to do it in you. The other extreme is, "You have to do it all. I have to win this race myself."

God works in us and through us. We saw that back in Philippians 2:12-13. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." God works in us and through us. We surrender our body to him. We surrender our mind and our will. We apply ourselves to spiritual things.

We need to have a return in our churches to spiritual determination. There's just too much of this idea that you just rest in the arms of Jesus and you just, you just sit there with him in the heavenlies and you don't have to do anything. My friend, you have to read your Bible. God won't read it to you. You have to pray. God won't do it for you. You have to get up and get dressed and go to church. God won't do it for you.

Every athlete that you see running down the field or running on the race, every athlete that you see on that floor or in that water is saying to you, "Look, I've got some determination. I determined I'm going to win this game. I'm going to get that trophy." Determination. I press. No wonder Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, "Exercise yourself unto godliness."

Which leads us to our last essential, discipline. Discipline. If you want to win the prize, you have to obey the rules. It's as simple as that.

Recently, Jim Thorpe, the Olympic winner had his prizes given back to him posthumously. He's been dead for a number of years, but in the 1912 Olympics, he won so many prizes and he had to give them back the next year. They discovered he'd broken the rules. He'd been playing with a baseball team down in North Carolina and he was no longer an amateur. Well, they just recently restored his awards to him, but if you break the rules, you can't win the game. You break the rules, you can't get the award.

That's why he says, "Let us therefore, as many as be mature, be thus minded, and if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, as to that which we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing." You are not going to win the prize unless you obey the rules. In 2 Timothy 2:5, Paul wrote that to Timothy. He says, "No athlete who strives to win the game is going to get the prize unless he keeps the rules." And the rulebook is the Bible.

Now the Christian life is not some dull, unexciting thing. Paul's comparing the Christian life to, to the same challenge that an athlete has. And all of these great victors surround us. Abraham ran the race of faith, and so did Jacob, and Samuel, and Moses, and David, and Paul. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross.

Now, I don't know what goal God has for you. I don't know what lane he's put you in, but you'd better stay there. And if you're going to have joy in your ministry, you need to have his reward. Not the praise of men, not even your own self-congratulation, his reward.

This involves dissatisfaction. Don't think that you have attained. This involves devotion. This one thing I do. This involves direction. Keep your eyes on the goal. This involves determination. I press. And this involves discipline, obeying the rules that God has laid down for us.

Paul says, "My first motive for ministry is his righteousness." Let me read this marvelous paragraph. Philippians 3:17-21. "Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them who walk even as you have us for an example. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their appetite, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our lowly body, that it might be fashioned like his glorious body, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." The motive of our Lord Jesus Christ's return.

Now, Paul is talking here about a very special group of people who were giving trouble in the various churches. You know, back in Philippians 3:1-11, he's talking about the legalists, those Judaizers who, who said, "Now, we have arrived. We are righteous. We keep the law." And Paul says in Philippians 3:1-11, "I had all of that righteousness, my own righteousness, a law righteousness, but as far as I'm concerned, it's just garbage. I've gotten rid of it that I may have the righteousness of Christ." So in Philippians 3:1-11, he deals with the legalists in the church.

Then in Philippians 3:12-16, he deals with the perfectionists in the church. This is the other extreme. The people who say, "Oh, yes, we have arrived. We are spiritual. We have the truth." Paul said, "I haven't arrived yet. I haven't apprehended. I have not yet gotten my hands on that for which God got his hands on me. I don't look to the past. I'm looking ahead now and I'll only arrive as I run with the Lord Jesus Christ. Run with patience the race that is set before me."

So the legalists are his problem in Philippians 3:1-11, and the perfectionists in Philippians 3:12-16, but in Philippians 3:17-21, it's the sensualists, the worldly crowd, the carnal crowd.

You know, Moses had to put up with this crowd. There was a mixed multitude that went out of Egypt with the Jewish people. And they created all kinds of problems. And Paul had to deal with this crowd. There are in every church those who profess to be saved, but their attitude is this, "Well, we're saved by grace, we can live any way we please." Since we are saved by grace, the more we sin, the more there will be grace.

Paul wrote Philippians from the city of Rome, and when you read the book of Romans, you find the Apostle Paul attacking this very doctrine that they were teaching. "Let us continue in sin that grace may abound." Romans 6. He says, "How can you continue in sin when you have died to that old life through Jesus Christ?"

Now, how does he encourage these people to live godly lives? Well, he does point out the, the awfulness of living a worldly life. In fact, in Philippians 3:18, we find Paul weeping. Paul is weeping because of people in the church who think they are the friends of the cross, they're the enemies of the cross. They think they're going to heaven, their end is destruction. They think they're spiritual, but they're living for their fleshly appetites. They're glorying in their liberty and they ought to be ashamed of it. They mind earthly things.

Paul simply points out in Philippians 3:20, "Our citizenship is in heaven." This is how he solves the problem. He says to us, "If you are going to be motivated in your Christian life and ministry, remember your citizenship is in heaven."

What are the characteristics of the citizens of heaven? Characteristic number one is rather obvious. Our names are on heaven's record. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 10:20, "Don't rejoice because the demons are subject to you. Rejoice because your names have been written down and they stand written in heaven."

Now, citizenship was very important to a Roman citizen. You'll recall that in the book of Acts, on several occasions, Paul used his Roman citizenship to good advantage. Citizenship is important. Now, our names are on heaven's record. Secondly, in Philippians 4:3, Paul talks about our fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Has your name been written down in heaven? Are you one of heaven's citizens? Now, if you are, act like it. Our names are on heaven's record.

Secondly, we speak heaven's language. The Philippian people were accustomed to the language of Rome, and we speak the language of God, the language of heaven. Now, not some special spiritual language that God gives to us. It's just that people ought to be able to tell we belong to the Lord because of our speech.

1 John 4:4-6. "You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, the false teachers, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that knoweth God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth not us." We speak heaven's language. We can discuss the things of God, and we can pray, and we can praise, and we can witness because we are citizens of heaven.

Thirdly, when you are a citizen of heaven, you obey heaven's laws. Now, the laws that governed Philippi were Roman laws, not Greek laws or Asian laws, Roman laws. It was Roman law that governed Philippi. And we're to be good examples of obedient citizens.

In Philippians 3:17, Paul writes, "Brethren, be followers together of me." In other words, imitate me. "And mark those who walk even as you have us for an example." Here are the people who obey heaven's laws. Now, here's a group of people who don't obey heaven's laws. "For many walk of whom I've told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ."

You see, heaven's laws are different from the laws of earth when it comes to personal morality and spirituality. We're governed by love, not hatred. We're governed by giving, not getting. We're governed by thinking of others, not just thinking of ourselves. We are heaven's citizens. We have our name on heaven's record. We speak heaven's language, we obey heaven's laws.

And there is a fourth characteristic. We are loyal to heaven's cause. Now, what is the cause for which heaven is concerned? The cross. Notice that? Here are people who are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Now, heaven is concerned about the cross. You read Revelation 5 and you find out that all of heaven is praising the Lamb that was slain. Heaven is concerned about the cross of Jesus Christ. Why? The cross of Jesus Christ is the evidence of God's love to the world. It's the evidence of God's hatred for sin. It is the place where God solved all the spiritual problems. For example, at the cross of Jesus Christ, God took care of the world and the flesh and sin and the devil.

I read in Galatians 5:24, "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Here are people whose God was their appetite. Here are people who mind earthly things. And yet Galatians 5:24 says that when you are Christ, you have crucified the flesh. Galatians 6:14 says, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world."

Now, here are people who mind earthly things. Why are they the enemies of the cross? The cross crucified the world. The cross crucified the flesh. These people live for the flesh. They live for the world. They know nothing about the power of the cross of Jesus Christ.

The important thing is that you and I share a crucified and risen Christ with a lost world. We are loyal to heaven's cause if we are truly the citizens of heaven. Finally, we are looking for heaven's Lord. We are looking for heaven's Lord. Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he comes, he's going to glorify our bodies.

Now, how can we use our bodies for sensual, worldly purposes when these bodies are God's temples? When these bodies are God's dwelling place, and one day these bodies are going to share in the glory of heaven. Oh, how can we do this? He's going to transform our bodies. We're going to be new people in a new environment sharing in the glory of Jesus Christ.

You see, when you believe that Jesus Christ is coming again, it's a great motivation for clean Christian living. It's a great motivation. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said, "What is our joy or our crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming." You'll want to win people to Christ when you really believe that Jesus is coming again. It's a motivation for ministry. And you keep on going. You don't give up.

John wrote in 1 John 2:28, "And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming." "If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him." 1 John 3:3. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."

These then are the characteristics of the citizen of heaven. His name is on heaven's record, and he speaks heaven's language, and he obeys heaven's laws. He's loyal to heaven's cause, and he's looking for heaven's Lord to return. Our motivation is the return of Jesus Christ.

My friend, don't quit. Don't give up. Jesus is coming again. Our work is not in vain in the Lord. If you're doing what you're doing to glorify Jesus Christ, he will reward you. Oh, may the Lord help each one of us to be loyal to look for his return, to love his appearing, and to work as those who one day shall stand before the King.